OTHER COMMENTARIES
NEWS
by Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Human rights activists reach Hamas-ruled strip by sea, despite Israeli blockade.
IN FOCUS
by Adil E. Shamoo – Foreign Policy in Focus ·
Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq.
by Johann Hari – The Independent ·
A chief of the Mafia Cruenza, one of the biggest drug gangs in the 1980s, was recorded expressing his gratitude for the war on drugs as ‘good for business’.
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
by Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Comprehension and Engagement through Aesthetic Ring Transformation
by Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
‘Economics is the key to overcoming all problems,’ observed the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while articulating the main content of quadrilateral meet of Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan at the Russian Black Sea resort Sochi on 18 August 2010.
by Dr. Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
On 24 Aug, the United States officially confirmed that it is “exploring how best to proceed” on the initiative to push for “a properly structured international commission of inquiry that would examine allegations of serious violations of international law in Burma”.
by Vithal Rajan – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Ramanujan’s life was enclosed within the theory of numbers, not only loved by pure mathematicians for its sheer beauty, as believed by Hardy, who lived within the privileged cloisters of Cambridge, but as the recently-held International Congress of Mathematicians proclaimed in Hyderabad, it is intimately involved in several practical applications, and even in elucidating the very nature of the Universe.
CURRENT AFFAIRS
by Jeremy Scahill – The Nation ·
Four months before WikiLeaks rocketed to international notoriety, the Robin Hoods of the Internet quietly published a confidential CIA document labeled “NOFORN” (for “no foreign nationals”)—meaning that it should not be shared even with US allies. That’s because the March “Red Cell Special Memorandum” was a call to arms for a propaganda war to influence public opinion in allied nations. The CIA report describes a crisis in European support for the Afghanistan war, noting that 80 percent of German and French citizens are against increasing their countries’ military involvement.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
by BBC – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
A senior United Nations official has called on the global community to urgently step up its response to the floods that have struck Pakistan. Louis-George Arsenault, director of emergency operations for Unicef in New York, described the lack of support as “quite extraordinary”. The humanitarian crisis was the largest “in decades”, he warned.
EUROPE
by Lesley Docksey – Global Research ·
Ex-Prime Minister and post-Downing Street millionaire Tony Blair, to celebrate the publication of his book A Journey, is holding a ‘signing’ session at Waterstones, Piccadilly on 8 September. That this man, responsible for taking us into an illegal war, playing his part in the ruination of an ancient country because he ‘believed he was right’, should advertise himself in this way has caused outrage. Time, I think, to look at where we, and Blair, actually stand in terms of what we can and cannot do to call him to account.
by Susan George – Transnational Institute ·
At the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) in October, Asian governments should not take any lessons on democracy or economics from the European Union. We have to make common cause between Asian and European social movements, because we are all losing out from current policies. Susan George shared these reflections in the run-up to the Asia-Europe People’s Forum.
PALESTINE ISRAEL
by Jonathan Cook – Global Research ·
600 sign up for campaign of disobedience.
by Phyllis Bennis – Yes! Magazine ·
A growing grassroots movement is using the techniques of the anti-apartheid movement to challenge U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
by Sherry Wolf – Socialist Worker ·
Yael Hersonski’s documentary examines a Nazi propaganda film about the Warsaw Ghetto–and a time and place when Jews were the Palestinians of Europe.
by Lauren Booth – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
This morning I set out to write a piece about the looting of the aid Flotilla to Gaza, by your soldiers. As you may have read, an Israel Defense Forces officer, has been remanded by a military court, suspected of stealing laptop computers from passengers. Interestingly, Haretz newspaper, now refers to the fleet as an ‘aid flotilla.’ Which it was. Rather than the ‘terror’ fleet your leaders would have had you call it. But I digress.
THE UNITED NATIONS
by Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
God created lands filled with water as a place for man to live; and the desert so that he can discover his soul.
VIEWS FROM THE USA
by Chalmers Johnson - AlterNet ·
The following is an excerpt from Chalmers Johnson’s new book, Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope (Metropolitan Books, 2010).
MEDIA
by Scott Thill - AlterNet ·
. “Just consider the power and public role of firms like Verizon or Google (especially if they work together). Sitting atop the web, they can influence what firms succeed or fail — by making sites load faster or slower, or end up on page 10 of search results. It goes further — in subtle ways, the information carriers have the power to influence elections and even censor speech they don’t like.”
by Manuel E. Yepe – Pravda ·
It would be wrong to presume that these huge consortiums are subordinate to the United States government and therefore abide by the dictates of the White House. The truth is that both Washington and the giants of information, are controlled by the same power elite in the exercise of its world tyranny.
by Darian Worden – AlterNet ·
With modern information and publishing technologies, it’s easier than ever for average folks to actively participate in the spread of information. We can look beneath the official stories and create our own narratives that are not based in helplessness, isolation, or politicians’ posturing.
by Frank Dohmen, Martin U. Müller and Hilmar Schmundt - Spiegel ·
As data volumes continue to grow, it’s clear that the Internet’s infrastructure needs upgrading. What’s not clear is who is going to pay for it. Web activists fear the development of a two-tier Internet, where corporations have priority and dissenting voices get pushed to the margins.
MILITARISM
by Tom Burghardt – Global Research ·
Secretive Mini-Shuttles and Spy Satellites
by Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera ·
While the Obama administration continues to affirm its intention to withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the US’ military presence in the Muslim world is actually expanding and this is exacerbating tensions and inflaming animosities. Barack Obama’s promise to open a new page with the Muslim world on the basis of mutual respect and interests – supplemented and enforced by the use of soft rather than hard power – now rings hollow.
CAPITALISM
by Todd Chretien – Socialist Worker ·
In this first installment in a series on the classics of the socialist tradition, Todd Chretien offers you a bet about the Communist Manifesto you shouldn’t refuse.
ENVIRONMENT
by April Dávila – Yes! Magazine ·
April Dávila wondered what it would take to cut the GMO giant out of her family’s life. She found that it was far more entrenched than she’d ever realized.
HEALTH
by Martha Rosenberg - AlterNet ·
It was enough to make the nation put down their Egg McMuffins. Almost a billion “government-inspected” eggs were recalled because they might harbor salmonella, a bacterium that causes bloody and mucoid diarrhea, fever and vomiting. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg warned people that if they ate their eggs runny and over-easy, something else could become runny and over-easy — not to mention sunny-side-up.
by Jill Richardson - AlterNet ·
Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful, but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).
ANIMAL PROTECTION AND CRUELTY
by T.L. Caswell – Truthdig ·
Catalonia has imposed a 2012 ban on the tradition, which is losing support throughout Spain. Could this toxic mix of blood lust and male preening finally be on its way out?
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
by Prof. Nanni Salio – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Riflettendo amaramente sui tragici eventi della seconda guerra mondiale, Martin Niemöller (Lippstadt, 14 gennaio 1892 – Wiesbaden, 6 marzo 1984) scrisse un testo poetico di grande amarezza che ancora oggi dovrebbe servirci per guidare i nostri pensieri e le nostre azioni di fronte all’arroganza, alla follia e alla mancanza di dignità che in questi tempi caratterizzano gran parte degli uomini politici, dell’industria e della finanza ovunque nel mondo: forti coi deboli, deboli coi forti.
by Natasha Pitts – Brasil de Fato ·
Acordo permitia aos Estados Unidos operar em sete bases colombianas desde 30 de outubro de 2009.
by Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Microtributo a Jo
“On a fêté, on a fêté, nos retrouvailles, nos retrouvailles, ça fait de la peine mais il faut que je m’en aille …”
by Marcelo Barros – Brasil de Fato ·
Se governos como o dos Estados Unidos quiserem realmente colaborar para a paz do mundo, basta não invadirem o país dos outros.
VIDEO
by CODEPINK – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin and other DC area activists were detained at the home of Blackwater Founder Erik Prince.
by Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
Antiwar Radio host Scott Horton discusses the Iranian nuclear program on Russia Today.
by Riz Khan – Al Jazeera ·
US combat forces have left Iraq, but who should be held accountable for the invasion and occupation that has left hundreds of thousands dead? Veteran investigative journalist John Pilger joins the show to discuss.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
by Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service ·
A little boy wanted $100 very badly, he prayed and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened.
